Image credit: Susie Dodds/AAP PHOTOS
The Youth Disability Advocacy Network (YDAN) is raising urgent concerns about proposed changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), warning they will disproportionately impact young people across Australia if reflected in the upcoming state and federal budget settings.
With a National Day of Action planned this Saturday 9th May, and governments preparing to hand down budget decisions, YDAN says the current reform agenda risks redefining disability support as a fiscal problem rather than a human right.
“This moment matters. What is being framed as ‘sustainability’ is, in reality, a shift away from the core promise of the NDIS,” said CEO, Isabella Choate.
“Young disabled people are not cost pressures to be managed. We are building lives, communities, and futures – and the NDIS must enable that, not restrict it.” – YDAN Board
Proposed Changes Would Exclude Thousands of Young People
The reforms are expected to reduce participant numbers from approximately 760,000 to 600,000 by the end of the decade, effectively locking around 160,000 people out of the scheme. Experts warn that once the Commonwealth’s four-year plan concludes, it will have effectively stopped support for closer to 350,000 people with disability. YDAN warns that more cuts to the scheme will result in more harm, neglect, and death, to Disabled people.
YDAN warns that this approach ignores the reality that rising participation reflects previously unmet need – particularly among young people with Autism, ADHD, developmental delay and psychosocial disability.
“We are seeing more young people in the NDIS because barriers are finally being lowered, not because the system is being misused.” – Stephanie Yeung, young person with disability
The shift toward standardised functional assessments risks excluding those whose disability is episodic, invisible, or difficult to measure in short assessments – including many neurodivergent young people and those who mask their needs.
“The proposed functional assessments require young people to clearly articulate their needs to people who do not have a great knowledge of disability. Importantly, communication and awareness of one’s needs is inherently part of some people’s disabilities” – CEO, Isabella Choate.
Funding Cuts Will Reduce Participation and Increase Long-Term Costs
Proposed reductions in plan budgets will directly affect access to critical support such as therapy, support workers, and community participation.
YDAN emphasises that these are not efficiency gains, but cuts that will:
- increase social isolation
- reduce access to education and employment pathways
- shift costs onto families and other public systems
“Participation is not optional. It is the difference between surviving and actually building a life.” – Eugene Ramsden, young person with disability
The Commonwealth explains that these cuts are necessary for ensuring sustainability when in reality, the costs will be passed to hospitals, health, education, justice, employment, and welfare.
“The BCEC 2024 report showed that annually, Australia is missing out on $16B due to failures to invest in Disabled economic participation. Rather than investing in the NDIS and our community to access this economic power, we are taking it away” – CEO, Isabella Choate
‘Foundational Supports’ Cannot Replace the NDIS
The proposal to redirect young people, particularly children, into alternative ‘foundational supports’ raises serious concerns, particularly as these supports are not yet in place.
YDAN says mainstream services are already underfunded, inaccessible, and inconsistent, and warns this will create a two-tier system where:
- NDIS supports remain entitlement-based
- non-NDIS supports become discretionary and unreliable
With less supports for individuals, students with Disability will have less support in schools. Teachers are experiencing burnout at unprecedented levels; moving children and young people who need supports, into more mainstream supports, will increase pressure on schools.
“No young person should be removed from the NDIS until equivalent supports are guaranteed, accessible, and enforceable.” – Keeley Faram, Services Manager
Integrity Measures Must Not Come at the Cost of Autonomy
While supporting action against fraud and exploitation from service providers, YDAN rejects narratives that frame participants as the problem.
“The emphasis on rorting and organised crime has come from a $400,000 communications testing focus group, that showed that presenting “rorts, fraud… as posing an existential threat” made people more amenable to reforms. In actual fact, fraud sits at around 2%, comparable to fraud rates across all government social programs” – CEO, Isabella Choate
Increased compliance, tighter controls, and reductions in plan management supports risk undermining choice, control, and access, particularly for young people without strong family advocacy.
A Budget Test for Governments
YDAN says the upcoming budget will be a critical test of whether governments are committed to a rights-based NDIS or a narrowed, high-needs safety net.
“This budget cannot entrench a future where young disabled people are excluded early and forced into lifelong disadvantage. This is not just an issue for the disability portfolio. If these cuts are going to be made, we need significant investment into all systems that young people interact with. We need investments into schools, health, mental health, justice. For too long, mainstream inclusion efforts have been withdrawn from the disability budget rather than recognised as universal access improvements that support everyone” – CEO, Isabella Choate
YDAN Calls For:
- Co-design of all reforms with disabled people, including young people
- Rights-based access to supports based on need, not fiscal caps
- No removal of participants without guaranteed, equivalent alternatives that have actually been implemented
- Investment into accessible, universal services alongside the NDIS across a range of systems (education, health, justice).